Empire Series Finale
by Desertfyre
Summary: The alternative ending to the last several minutes of S3 finale, featuring GuiltyAngstAndre, HumanLuscious, HurtComfortYoungerBrothers and Cookie being Cookie.


**Disclaimer:** I own nothing. Period. If I did, please believe me when I say, the the show would have ended like this fanfic. But it didn't so...

 **A.N:** After watching S3 finale...I'm just done, honestly. Both me and my mother aren't coming back next season. If you are interested in a review and a further explanation of my feelings after the finale you can see it on my Desertfyre (Fire in the Desert) Tumblr blog. But basically, this is how I wanted the show to end. I adored the good part of the episode and felt the last 5-10 minutes just sunk this ship. Read: Drowned it. I also felt the Luscious giving Andre the keys and he and Cookie leaving would have made a great series finale.

So in that spirit for those of us that may not be coming back or just want an alternative, here is my oneshot series finale.

* * *

Andre barely felt or heard his brother's heartfelt congratulations. Even as his father talked, his ears began to buzz. By now, all he heard was white noise, a low buzzing sound as he stared at the key in his hand.

Everything he had ever wanted.

More than that a kind word from the man he called a father.

Everything.

Andre blinked, the emotion beginning to well up in his eyes. He was sure his blood pressure was rising, as his chest began to heave. A sense of panic began to engulf him. Why now? Why did it take until now? Why was his father saying this all now?

"Well, I guess we are off", Luscious said, giving Andre a parting clap on the back.

"You boys be good, hear? Don't make me come back here", Cookie pointed at each of the boys in turn.

Jamal playfully waved it away and Hakeem just rolled his eyes. Andre just stood stock still looking at the key in his hand.

Luscious and Cookie barely took a few steps forward when a clank sounded.

"Andre?" Jamal cried

"Dre?" Hakeem chorused with Jamal.

When they turned back, Andre's hands were shaking. They began to shake so badly that he dropped the keys. He hunched over trying to catch his breath.

"Baby, what's wrong?!" Cookie leapt the short distance, to reach for her oldest son.

Andre didn't remember when gravity failed him. All he was aware of is that he was on his knees on the ground, his hands digging into his head.

"Get his medicine!" Luscious snapped.

"I think he's have a panic attack!" Jamal observed frantically.

Andre vaguely felt the movement around him, the solid presence of his entire family. But he was oblivious to it. He could barely breathe. He could barely get in a full solid breath. His entire body heaved and he felt thrown from one side of the room to the other. He vaguely felt the hands reaching him, holding him. This panic attack seemed to last forever almost sending his body into seizures.

"Dre, say something!" he heard this father snap.

"Andre!" Cookie cried shaking him once again.

"I didn't mean it", Andre managed to choke out, his voice thick. Did he speak at all? "I didn't mean it!"

"Didn't mean what?" Jamal asked.

Andre felt like a broken record. "I didn't mean it."

"Baby, you have to tell us what you are talking about", Cookie demanded in a gentle voice. He felt a warm hand under his chin intending to lift his head up.

Andre jerked back. He couldn't look at her. He couldn't.

"Andre, spit it out!" Luscious demanded.

Andre flinched at his father's voice, "It wasn't supposed to happen like this. You weren't supposed to give this to me. You hated me. Why couldn't you just keep hating me!"

By the end Andre was yelling. He banged a fist on the hard floor. The pain that shot through his arm didn't even register, but it did have various hands reaching for his.

"Stop it, Dre!" Cookie's panic voice cried as her hands settled over his fist.

"What are you talking about, bro? You aren't making sense!" Hakeem's voice had gone an octave higher.

"He hated me! Why would he do this now?!" Andre cried.

Hakeem turned to his father. "Is he talking about you?"

"Andre..." Luscious trailed off.

"It would have been better if you continued to hate me."

"Baby...you don't mean that..."Cookie murmured, "You have the kingdom now. It's yours as it should have been. We are sorry it took so long to see that. I'm sure you'll do a great job when we are gone."

"NO!" Andre exploded. He darted forward, surprising everyone and grabbing his mother by the shoulders. His dark eyes looked wild, "You can't leave!"

"Andre, they are just going on vacation. It's not like we won't see them again. What's gotten into you?" Hakeem asked confused.

"Yeah, what's wrong?" Jamal asked softly.

Andre shook Cookie once. "You can't leave." His eyes darted around furiously, not really seeing anything.

Cookie held up her hands surpressing a wince at her son's hard grip, "Okay. Okay. We won't leave. You are okay, Andre." She began patting him, trying to console him.

Andre's voice had dipped lower as he said, "You can never leave."

"Andre. Andre." Luscious called. He slowly managed to extract the death like grip that Andre had on his mother's shoulders. He managed to turn his son to him. Even still, Andre's eyes kept darting all over the place.

"You are a smart boy. Now I need you to breath and find your words."

Andre shook his head violently.

Luscious nodded once, "Yes, Andre. You need to stop rambling."

Andre shook his head again, thoroughly agitated, "No, you don't understand. You can't leave."

"Okay, we can't leave. Fair enough." said Luscious before asking, "Now why can't we leave?"

"It'll blow up. It'll all blow up. Ka-boom!" Andre let out a sound that was cross between a giggle and cry at the same time.

It took a moment for the words to process.

"What will, baby?" asked Cookie.

Andre moaned as his face crumpled. "I make it go boom. I don't want it to go boom, now."

"What go boom?" asked Luscious.

"You were supposed to hate me. I didn't mean it! I don't want the car to go boom."

It was like a pin could be heard dropping in the room. Everyone tried to weave thought the implication of Andre's words.

"Andre...what did you do?" Cookie asked a shake in her voice.

Andre let out a wail.

"What did you do?" Cookie snapped.

"Cookie!" Luscious shot her a warning glare.

Andre flailed his arms. "You can't leave. The car will blow up. I hired Shine and his boys to take you out."

"Wha..?" Hakeem cried sitting back on his haunches in absolute shock.

"I didn't mean it!" Andre wailed again.

"Wait, you mean you really meant it when you wanted to take out your father?" Cookie asked.

Andrea let out another wail.

"Alright. Alright. Look, you need to tell me what the plan was. Now." Luscious voice was firm but there didn't seem to be an reaction to the news of his son wanting to kill him.

"You can't leave." Andre repeated.

Luscious gave his son a violent shake, making him look at him for the first time, "I need you to stop whining and man up right now. I need you tell me what the plan was. And then we'll fix this. Now tell me!"

Andre took a deep breath and nodded jerkily. His brain was scrambling trying to put the pieces together. "Shine and his boys are out back. If you don't go out to the car in the front that will blow up, they will take care of you in the back. There is this guy we hired that knows his bombs. He has the code. He's somewhere and he will use the app to blow it."

Luscious nodded and stood. Andre reached out and gripped him, "You can't leave."

"I'm just going to be over there." He pointed to a bar in the back, "You can see me. Cookie, come with me." Without waiting for an answer he pulled her hand towards the back of the bar.

"Stay with your brother", Cookie pointed over her shoulder, ordering the youngest two. They both nodded absently.

There was an awkward silence that followed as Andre sat dumbly. After a moment, he looked up and pinpointed his parents and stared at him.

"Why?" Jamal asked. There was no judgment in his voice.

Andre gave a helpless shrug, "He hated me. He was supposed to hate me. That was the plan." he murmured.

There was another awkward silence before finally Jamal clapped his hands once, "Look, we all know who are our father is. I'm sure we've all thought about it at one time or another."

"Yeah, but to have the guts to do it?" Hakeem muttered.

Andre flinched at his words although his eyes didn't leave his parents who were talking to a rough and tough older guy.

Jamal reached behind his older brother back to slap his youngest. "Hakeem, shut up", he hissed.

Hakeem rubbed the back of his head, "Sorry. It was supposed to be a joke."

"It's not a good one." snapped Jamal.

Hakeem bobbed his head. "Sorry." He gave Andre an apologetic pat on the back just at their parents came back over. Andre dropped his gaze once they were back, muttering to himself.

"So, what do we do?" Jamal asked.

"We do what Lyons always do, we get out of the situation." Cookie smirked.

"So there's a plan?" Hakeem asked.

"Did you expect anything less?" Luscious asked.

Andre's murmurs were getting louder, "He'll hate me. He'll hate me again."

Luscious stared down at the top of Andre's head. Cookie slapped him on the arm making him look at her. She gave him a withering and pointed look. He eyes darting from him to the top of Andre's head. Neither Jamal or Hakeem said anything.

"I don't hate you." Luscious spoke after a minute.

Andre clearly didn't hear him as he kept talking to himself.

Luscious knelt down and reached out and shook Andre again. "I'm not saying this to hear myself talk, Dre. Did you hear what I said? Dre?!"

Andre's eyes snapped up at his father's bark.

When Luscious realized he had Andre's attention he continued, "I don't hate you. I can't even really blame you. I know I help make you what you are. I get that. But that doesn't matter anymore, got it?"

He shook Andre once more, "We are Lyons. No one paints us into a corner. Now, I need you to get your head in the game. I need that brain that can outmaneuver anyone."

"You want him to outmaneuver himself?" Hakeem asked.

Jamal gave him a withering glare and Cookie darted forward and slapped Hakeem upside the head. She pointed a fingernail at him. "Boy, I will end you, if you keep talking."

Hakeem pouted.

Luscious ignored his youngest still looking at Andre. He gave a little shake, "Do you hear me, Andre? We will all fix this. All of us."

Andre nodded once jerkily.

"Okay?"

"Okay."

"Okay then!" Jamal chirped in.

Luscious studied his oldest son a long moment before clapping him on the back. With a nod, he stood, "And we will get rid of a problem in the mean time."

"Shine?" Cookie questioned, "He has a lot of connections. It will be hard to root out his influence."

Andre stood up shakily either of his brothers helping him stand. They had to hold him up a minute until he got his legs back.

"We all know Shine was always a problem. A loose cannon." Luscious said, "Be that as it may, we've gotten out of tougher situations than this."

Hakeem cleared his throat once, "And then..." He hedged, "...Maybe we can get Bella back safely?"

Hakeem didn't know why he felt compelled to tell them the truth at that moment. Even as he left the Dubios home, he ran everything though his mind. He was willing to do anything to get Bella back but even as he held her in his arms, he knew that she was only a chess piece to them. Could he really get her back on his own?

"Excuse me? I thought you said Bella was safe." Cookie said, her dark eyes narrowing at him, daring him to say she wasn't.

"She is." He reassured, "But she's...not with Anika's parents."

"Then where is she?" Luscious demanded.

"The Dubios have her." came the soft reply.

Cookie let out string of expletives.

"Ma! Ma! Ma!" Jamal managed to put her flailing arms to the side, "She's not here for you to cuss out. Calm down."

"That evil woman has my grandchild!" Cookie raised the back of her hand to slap Hakeem who flinched. Cookie pointed a finger at him instead, "What were you doing? Why did you lie to us? Who told you..."

Luscious held up one hand and grabbed Cookie with the other. "Cookie. Cook!"

Cookie managed to stop her diatribe but it was obvious she was seething as she glared at Hakeem. The youngest Lyon shrunk under the gaze of mama Lyon.

"Alright. Alright. One problem at a time." said Luscious ,"We get out of here alive and then we'll deal with the Dubios family. Alright?"

Everyone nodded.

"Now, right now. I need you all to focus. Got it?"

Everyone nods again.

"Good."

Luscious glanced at the floor. He released Cookie and picked up the keys. He rolled it in his a long moment before holding it out to Andre. Andre's eyes had slid away from watching his father pick up the keys but came back when he saw it hanging in his face, a few inches from his eyes.

Andre stared at it, almost cross eyed.

Luscious jangled the keys once.

"Take the keys boy!" Cookie snapped with a smile.

Andre uncrossed his eyes and looked at his father who had a neutral expression on his face. Slowly he reached up and gingerly took the keys.

The corner of Luscious's mouth quirked once.


End file.
